Makeup artist’s lawsuit accuses Garth Brooks of rape

(Recasts first paragraph; adds comments from Brooks in paragraphs 4-6 and 9-10)
By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Garth Brooks was accused of rape and sexual assault in a lawsuit filed on Thursday by an unnamed hair and makeup artist, whose allegations were denied by the country music superstar.
In a complaint submitted to Superior Court in Los Angeles, a woman identified as Jane Roe said she had provided hair and makeup services to Brooks from 2017 to 2020. The woman said Brooks raped her in a hotel room in Los Angeles in 2019 when she accompanied him on a trip to help him prepare for an event.
She also said Brooks, the Grammy Award-winning singer of “Friends in Low Places,” repeatedly appeared naked in front of her, groped her breasts while she did his hair and makeup and sent sexually explicit text messages.
Brooks said in a statement that the claims were untrue and that the woman was seeking to extort a large payment from him.
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars,” Brooks said in a statement. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.
“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of — ugly acts no human should ever do to another,” he added.
In the lawsuit, the woman said Brooks tried to pre-empt her filing with his own legal action.
She said Brooks filed a complaint in Mississippi in September, under the name “John Doe,” claiming there was a woman who was “a lying extortionist who intended on destroying his professional reputation.”
Brooks acknowledged the Mississippi complaint, saying it was filed “to speak out against extortion and defamation of character” and was submitted anonymously “for the sake of families on both sides.”
“I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be,” Brooks added.
The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages.
Brooks, 62, ranks as one of the best-selling musicians of all time with more than 162 million albums sold. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jonathan Oatis)